The present invention relates to merchandisers, and more particularly, to merchandisers including multiple air curtains for conditioning product display areas.
In conventional practice, supermarkets and convenience stores are equipped with refrigerated merchandisers, which may be open or provided with doors, for presenting fresh food or beverages to customers while maintaining the fresh food and beverages in a refrigerated environment or product display area. Typically, a refrigerated airflow is directed through the merchandiser and is discharged from an air discharge or outlet to condition product supported in the product display area. Some existing merchandisers include two or more air passageways to direct refrigerated and/or non-refrigerated airflows through the case and discharge the airflows from the merchandiser in the form of discrete air curtains In existing merchandisers, the discrete air curtains generate a turbulent boundary layer between the primary and secondary curtains, which causes the airflows to mix after the discharge point. This post-discharge mixing causes warm air to infiltrate into the case.